Land of Promise Read Free Page B

cocked his head at Rick and said with a snort, “Well, I’m always up for a bit of the old Guy Fawkes. What’s cooking?”
    Rick answered in a much quieter and more serious voice, “First, put your mobile in this stealth pouch.”
    After Pilcher complied, Rick went on, “We’re talking about resistance to the Caliphate and forming an entirely new nation.”
    Alan raised his eyebrows, and urged, “Oh, really? Fill me in on that.”
    Rick looked Alan in the eye and said, “Let me summarize: After discussing the Thirdist’s global wave of persecution against Christians -- much like you and I have done in our chats together -- and comparing that to what happened to the Jews in Europe in the last century and their establishment of the state of Israel in the late 1940s, we’ve come to two conclusions: First, there needs to be a better-organized resistance movement, globally. Second, there needs to be a homeland nation formed, like Israel, but one for Protestant Christians -- and there’s some urgency in this.”
    Alan’s face took on a serious countenance, and Rick continued. “We’ve decided that convincing an existing nation to become a large-scale refuge nation for Protestant Christians and Messianic Jews would be insufficient, and essentially too much of a compromise: Any current nation would be too burdened by existing laws and customs, too beholden to the Caliphate one way or the other, or at least unwilling to take risks that would roll them in the mud, in the eyes of the ‘World Community.’”
    Meital chimed in, “Argentina, Ecuador, Peru, and the Philippines have already declared themselves sanctuary nations for Catholics, Poland is a refuge nation for Eastern Orthodox and Serbian Pravoslávac believers, and Kenya has done the same for the Coptic Orthodox. And Rick mentioned that the United States has established special immigration quotas for Jehovah’s Witnesses, Scientologists, Seventh Day Adventists, and Mormons. But the U.S. hasn’t set any quota for mainstream Protestants, Messianics, and Protestant Evangelicals. So where can persecuted Protestants and Messianics go? Many countries are already feeling as if they are losing -- or have already lost -- their national identities, due to immigration.”
    After a pause, she said emphatically, “So we see the need to start with a blank slate somewhere. It would be both a physical homeland, and a virtual homeland, where dispossessed Christians can obtain passports and then settle in third countries.”
    Rick jumped in. “Our role in this would be as behind-the-scenes facilitators, and once sovereignty has been established, we could assist at the diplomatic level. It could be done on a modest budget, and all of the requisite funds could come from selling citizenship to the wealthy, so they could claim this new country as their home country and, depending on where they lived and worked or derived their income, many of them could live tax free . We anticipate that the vast majority of the citizens won’t ever actually live in the new refuge nation. The cost of getting their passports will subsidize the operations of a minimalist government for those who do live there. This method will give the Christian diaspora a means to renounce U.S. citizenship and remove the IRS tentacles.”
    Alan nodded, and then Rick continued, “The new nation will be much more than just a tax haven. It would be a proper Christian Libertarian Republic with a truly minimalist government bound to miniscule size by a firmly-worded Constitution that will make it exceedingly difficult to grow -- I’m talking lower-case ‘g’ government. The only legitimate functions of a minarchist government are the protection of Citizens, both born and not yet born, from initiated aggression, where the key forms of aggression in the civil context are theft, coercion, fraud, and breach of contract. Most of the necessities like roads and public utilities would be handled by subscription and paid